Take a photo

Sometimes you want a picture, not a scan: a dent in a rental car, a meter reading, a whiteboard you’d like to keep as it looks. Photo takes one plain photo and keeps it exactly as the camera took it.

What it is

Photo opens the standard iPhone camera. The picture you take is saved in your vault as a photo item:

no edge finding, no cropping, no clean-up,
kept as an image file, the way you took it,
placed on the Photos and videos shelf.

It is the opposite of Scan a document, which crops and cleans up pages so they read like paper.

The photo goes into Paperwise only. It isn’t added to your Photos library.

When to use it

Proof of condition: a parcel on arrival, a scratch on a car, a flat on move-in day.
Things that aren’t flat paper: a product label, a serial number plate, a whiteboard.
Any time the colours and the scene matter more than a clean page.

For paper, use Scan instead; the text will be cleaner and the page better cropped.

Step by step

Tap + at the bottom of the Vault (or inside a folder).
Under Capture, tap Photo.
Take the picture. Tap Retake if you want another go, or Use Photo to keep it.
The photo opens in Paperwise. From there you can share it, rename it, add it to a folder, or hide it.

If you started from inside a folder, the photo is filed in that folder. Otherwise it goes into your vault and shows on the Photos and videos shelf and in All items.

The first time, iOS asks for camera access.

Free and Pro

Photo is free.

Privacy

The photo stays on your iPhone. It isn’t added to your Photos library, and Paperwise doesn’t upload it.
The camera’s temporary copy is moved into Paperwise and the picture caches are cleared.
In your vault, the photo is encrypted by Paperwise with its own key, kept on this iPhone only; Face ID guards the app when the app lock is on. For private photos, use Hidden’s private camera, which encrypts each photo for Hidden as it’s taken, with keys only Face ID, your Hidden passcode or your recovery key open. See The private camera.

Tips

Need the photo as a page with text you can search and export as a PDF? Open it and choose ••• → Make it a scan. The photo stays, and a new scan document is made from it.
To keep a photo private from the start, open Hidden and tap Camera instead.

What if…

What if I want to record a video?

The vault’s Photo takes photos only. To add a video, save it from Photos with Save to Paperwise or use + → From Files. Hidden’s private camera can record video. See Save to Paperwise from any app.

What if I want several photos as one document?

Use Scan and take each page, or pick existing photos with + → From Photos. Both make one document with several pages.

What if it says “Couldn’t take that photo. Try again.”?

Something went wrong saving the picture. Take it again. If it keeps happening, check that your iPhone has free storage.

What if the camera doesn’t open?

Paperwise may not have camera access. Go to the iPhone’s Settings → Paperwise and turn on Camera.